Saturday 26 April 2014

17.4.14 Thursday Jamwelly, Sinchu Njabo and Tendaba bird camp



We had some shopping to do this morning in Kaur, Sanaba is coming on Sunday to start some modifications to the kitchen, building a verandah/porch to enable the cooks to prepare the food outside in the rainy season.  They have a very large cooking pot here which will not fit onto the oven inside and so a small fire is built outside, and the cooks prepare the rice here.  We had breakfast in the local cafĂ© (a corrugate shack with wooden benches) and then organised a donkey cart to take Channeh, the cement, wood, corrugate and other purchases back to the school whilst we got on the road to Sinchu Njabo our next stop.
2 years ago Beechdale Solar Energy installed a system here to power a computer room in the school.  There is a problem with it at the moment, so Steve was going to try and get it started again.  Anne and I sat in the shade whilst both Steves worked in the small classroom where the solar batteries are kept.  Mr Sowe came to meet us and to collect all the wages cheques for the summer, along with paperwork and other items which had been requested.  The first attempt at getting the system started failed and so we moved into the shade of the mango tree as the sun had reached our original position.  We said goodbye to Mr Sowe until November, and then eventually the solar system restarted and we were able to get on the road once more, passing through Loumen with a small delivery and then onto the main road where our holiday started! Through Farafenni and onto the ferry terminal where fortunately we had our priority letter to hand; from no traffic on Tuesday, the Senegalese drivers had once more decided to drive through Gambia and use the ferry and a queue of about a kilometre had formed.  We were able to drive to the front of the queue and board on the first ferry to arrive, a wait of about an hour in the searing heat.
Once across the river we had a drive of around an hour before reaching Tendaba camp where after checking in our first thought was a swim and a cold beer!  We met up with Tess, Alan, Vlad, Paul, Ellie and Rhona who had arrived earlier today, had a nice cold drink before dinner and an early night ready for another boat trip tomorrow.

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